HARARE, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's
opposition had a successful day of campaigning despite attempts by ruling
party militants to thwart election activities, party officials said
Sunday.

President Robert Mugabe's supporters cordoned off the area where
opposition leaders were to speak in a Harare suburb, preventing the
opposition from going ahead with the rally, Movement for Democratic Change
spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

However, two other gatherings went
ahead as planned in Harare despite militants threatening and intimidating
supporters at the venue, Chamisa said.

"The people are so strong and
so courageous. It was very successful," he said.

On Saturday, a court
had struck down a police ban on opposition rallies.

MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai faces off against Mugabe in a presidential runoff June 27.
Tsvangirai won the most votes in the first round in March, but not enough to
avoid a runoff.Tsvangirai, meanwhile, continued campaigning Sunday in
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second main city, where he has been speaking to small
groups of voters around Bulawayo.

He also made a surprise visit at a
small rally in Kwekwe, where he urged supporters to go and vote, the party
said in a statement.

"The people have already won. The coming election
would only reaffirm this victory," Tsvangirai said. "Zimbabweans would
resoundingly defeat the regime and begin a new life with hope of a better
Zimbabwe."

However, the opposition said police attacked supporters in
Bulawayo and prevented them from putting up election campaign
posters.

A team of four party members were putting up posters when they
were confronted by police and other security forces who told them that "it
was Mugabe's country and only Mugabe could put posters on street poles and
the MDC would not be allowed," the opposition said in a
statement.

The team continued on to the railway station, but were
followed by police in riot gear and on bicycles, the party said. The police
assaulted the MDC members with baton sticks. One person suffered a broken
leg and was admitted to hospital.

Comment from the police was not
immediately available.

Tsvangirai's spokesman, George Sibotshiwe, said
Mugabe has turned Zimbabwe into a police state.

"The regime is
denying the people their fundamental rights in order to steal the June 27
election and subvert the will of the Zimbabwean people through widespread
violence and killings, wanton arrests and by closing political space for the
MDC to campaign," he said.

Also Sunday, a court ordered police to release
opposition lawmaker Eric Matinenga, who was taken from his home Saturday and
detained at a station outside the capital. He was accused of fomenting
violence, lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said.

Matinenga, also detained on
similar charges earlier in the week but released because of a lack of
evidence, is among scores of opposition activists arrested in recent weeks.
Matinenga, himself an attorney, has represented opposition leaders in a
string of high-profile court cases.

The opposition and rights groups cite
a rise in violence and intimidation in the run-up to the vote. Tsvangirai's
party, blaming state agents, says at least 60 of its supporters have been
slain in the past two months.

Tsvangirai, who his party says has been the
target of at least three assassination attempts, left Zimbabwe after the
March vote, but returned in late May to campaign for the runoff.

Zimbabwe court orders release of opposition MP

Reuters

Sun 8 Jun 2008,
14:37 GMT

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's High Court on Sunday ordered
police to release an opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) member
of parliament, who was arrested on Saturday for the second time in a
week.

Eric Matinenga was initially arrested on June 1 on charges of
inciting public violence in his constituency, but was released on Thursday
after a magistrate dropped the charges and said he had been wrongly
charged.

He was detained for a second time on Saturday
morning.

Matinenga's arrests come amid accusations by the opposition
that President Robert Mugabe's government is trying to sabotage MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai's campaign ahead of a June 27 run-off presidential
election.

The second round vote follows a disputed March poll which
showed Tsvangirai beat Mugabe, but not by enough votes to avoid a
run-off.

"The MDC welcomes the judgement as the only logical thing to do
as Advocate Matinenga is a fine son of Zimbabwe, whose quest for the freedom
of the people of Zimbabwe is unquestionable," the party said in a
statement.

Six MDC lawmakers have been arrested for various offences
since the March 29 poll.

The opposition, rights groups and opposition
members accuse veteran leader Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party of trying to rig
the election by intimidating voters, undermining the MDC and thwarting its
campaign efforts.

Nearly 3,000 victims of political violence in Zimbabwe:
doctors

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe doctors have
treated nearly 3,000 victims of political violence over nearly two months, a
medical association said Sunday, three weeks before a tense presidential
run-off.

"We have noticed with great concern the increase in
politically motivated violence to our fellow Zimbabweans," Specialist
Doctors in Zimbabwe said in a statement.

"Many victims, including
children, are currently under our care with severe injuries sustained over
the past few weeks."

The association includes the Surgical Society of
Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Anaesthetic Association, National Physicians of Zimbabwe
and the Paediatric Association of Zimbabwe.

A total of 2,900 victims
had been recorded throughout the country, it said, adding that some 200
among them had to be hospitalised.

"Sadly, a number have succumbed to
these injuries," the group said.

Violence has mounted ahead of the June
27 run-off, when opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will be seeking to
defeat President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence
from Britain in 1980.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says
around 60 of its supporters have been killed by pro-Mugabe
militias.

Mugabe blames the opposition for the increase in violence, but
the United Nations' chief representative in Zimbabwe has said the
president's supporters are to blame for the bulk of it.

Zimbabwe's
government has also suspended all aid work ahead of the vote, leading
charities to warn of a possible humanitarian crisis in a nation with the
world's highest inflation rate and major food shortages.

Lawyers flee Zimbabwe as Mugabe regime cracks down:
activists

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) -
Activists say Zimbabwe may be facing an exodus of human rights lawyers like
Makoni because of a crackdown by President Robert Mugabe's
regime.

Rights lawyer Andrew Makoni hopes he is safe now as he sits
in his new office here, but he remains shaken after packing up and leaving
Zimbabwe recently out of fears he would be killed for his work.

"My
departure was so sudden I had to leave my family behind," said Makoni, who
has represented Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. "They will be
joining me once their visas are sorted."

The last couple months have been
especially perilous, the activists said, with Mugabe's 28-year reign over
the country in jeopardy ahead of a June 27 presidential
run-off.

Lawyers have been routinely threatened or arrested, testing even
the most hardened among them, they said.

"State institutions are
being used to carry out atrocities against innocent civilians and those
defending them," said Beatrice Mthethwa, president of the Zimbabwe Law
Society.

Makoni represented Tsvangirai, who faces Mugabe in the upcoming
vote, when the opposition leader was beaten up and arrested in March last
year. The lawyer said working in Zimbabwe had become almost
impossible.

"If you represent a political or human rights abuse case you
are automatically associated with the cause of your client and subjected to
intimidation and arrest," he said.

Makoni claimed he fled after
security forces assigned to a police station near his home in Harare hatched
a plan to kill him.

"Areas outside Harare like Muthoko, Murewa and Guruve
are notorious for politically-motivated tortures, disappearances and
killings, and lawyers are often ambushed when they visit these areas," he
said.

Last year, Makoni and his partner Alec Muchadehama made headlines
when they were detained after trying to obtain bail for members of the
opposition party.

They were charged with obstruction of justice and
later released on bail following an uproar by rights lawyers and
organisations.

In the last two weeks, four of Makoni's clients who were
members of the opposition party were mysteriously killed, he said.

He
claimed the situation was so bad that the number of human rights lawyers
throughout the country had dropped to about 10.

Irene Petras,
director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said only a handful of the
bravest lawyers were willing to take on the government.

"We are not
letting the biased and volatile political climate undermine our work," said
Petras.

The Johannesburg-based Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC)
said Makoni's flight was likely to be followed by others.

The
organisation in recent months spearheaded a Durban court bid to prevent a
Chinese ship from offloading its cargo of arms intended for
Zimbabwe.

SALC director Nicole Fritz said it is a deeply troubling sign
of the situation in Zimbabwe when the best and most courageous human rights
lawyers are targeted and forced to flee.

"South Africa and regional
leaders need to put human rights monitors on the ground now because the
Zimbabwean authorities who refuse to relinquish power cannot be trusted to
secure the lives -- let alone the interests -- of their citizens," said
Fritz.

Lawyers in Zimbabwe say working conditions have been deteriorating
for several years, but the situation has worsened over the past couple
months.

"These days being a lawyer means you are also an MDC member,"
Mthethwa of the Zimbabwe Law Society said, referring to the Movement for
Democratic Change opposition party.

"Perpetrators often get off the
hook as incidents of abuse go unreported. Even if they are reported nothing
much gets done about it."

Ignatius Padya, a black market
currency trader in Harare, said: "Liberalisation has not changed the fact
that foreign currency is in short supply and is not available from the
banks. Or the banks are not selling, which is the same thing."

Zimbabweans pay
for goods in forex

A man buys eggs; each
costs six million Zimbabwe dollars, at a market in Harare. The country’s local
currency has become so worthless it was trading at 1$ to Z$1.2 billion by last
Thursday.

June 9, 2008: For long-suffering Zimbabweans, it never rains
but pours. Stared at by an incredulous world following a rare political
development, Zimbabweans find themselves faced with an even bigger crisis, that
of having to deal with increasingly insurmountable economic challenges.

Already, the country is having to go for an unprecedented second round
of voting, despite one candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for
Democratic Change, claiming victory against incumbent president, Robert Mugabe
of Zanu-PF, albeit without the 50 per cent win required by the
constitution.

Day-to-day existence for almost the entire population —
save for a few super-rich and those well-connected to the ruling party top brass
— has become a living nightmare, with prices of goods and services going up by
the hour, and way out of reach of most Zimbabweans.

Zimbabweans no
longer go for “window-shopping” with a view of coming back to make the purchase
later, because prices rarely last for two days at the same level, a situation
which has seen service providers now charging in US dollar or South African
Rand.

A private butchery, which now makes door-to-door deliveries
because of the scarcity of good quality meat, has since advised its clients it
will now be selling its products in South African Rand, arguing villagers are
also demanding payment in forex — and rejecting Zimbabwean dollars because of
its instability — for their goats, sheep or cattle.

Low income Both
petrol and diesel are now being sold in US dollars — from $1.30 to $1.50 a litre
— with such goods as motor vehicle parts/accessories, and such rare basic
commodities as cooking oil, washing soap, tooth paste etc- also being charged in
forex by traders, who are bringing them in from neighbouring South Africa,
Botswana and Zambia because local industry has either completely stopped
production of the commodities, or is producing too little to meet
demand.

And not to be outdone are landlords in both low-income and
high-density areas, who have since started demanding rent in foreign currency,
to open a new chapter in the people’s suffering. Lombard Matsika tells a grim
and touching story, of how life has become a living hell for himself and his
family of three. “To say things are tough would be an understatement,” begins
the 42-year-old, who works as a supervisor with a communications firm, in
central Harare.

“I have a young family with two of my three children
going to primary school, but the salary that I get is not even enough to feed
the family for a single day.

“And to make matters worse, I have tried to
get basic commodities like sugar and cooking oil, but you cannot get these in
the supermarkets, but the black market where the cross-border traders are
demanding payment in either Rand or US dollars. I live in Warren Park (a
high-density township in Harare) and the landlord told me at the weekend that
starting from June 1, I will have to pay rent in South African Rand and he has
pegged it at R150 per room.

“I’m renting four rooms which means I need
R600 every month, which I certainly cannot afford. I used to pay Z$2 billion per
room, which was Z$8 billion per month, but because of the inflation, this money
has been rendered worthless, and is only enough to buy just two litres of
cooking oil, so says the landlord, hence this new demand for rent in forex.

And on top of that, I have to pay school fees for my children, and food
because I am the only breadwinner in the family as my wife is not employed,”
said Matsika, adding he was contemplating taking his family back to his rural
home in Murehwa. Ennet Mujana rents two rooms in Dzivarasekwa, one of Harare’s
low income residential suburbs, and she has also been informed that each of her
rooms will be going for 100 Rand, starting from 1 June.

Enough is
enough“I’m a civil servant, and my salary is not even enough to pay for one
room. I have tried to plead my case with the landlord, but his wife told me, to
my face, that she is not the one who is making things unbearable for
Zimbabweans. She told me I have to fork-out the money or vacate the premises. I
also have to sell sweets, dried maize, and peanuts at work to raise more money
or I will be thrown onto the streets. Life used to be tough, but this new
development, where we have to pay for basics in foreign currency, has brought
real terror into our lives. What do we do?” Mujana said.

Lucky Soma
says he was asked to pay US$200 for a house he rents in Park Town, Waterfalls,
one of Harare’s low-density suburbs. “I used to pay in Zim dollars all along,
but the landlord wants US$200. I have since taken him to the Rent Board, who are
looking into the case and have advised me to continue paying the old rate in Zim
dollars. This is murder, daylight robbery and unfair to some of us who have to
go on the streets to buy the forex, whose rate continues to change each minute.
Hopefully, the Rent Board will be able to intervene,” said Soma.

Trevor
Mberi, who rents out one of his two houses in Southerton, a middle density
suburb in Harare, defended his decision to peg his rent in US
dollars.

“Look, if I have to charge in Zim dollar, it means I have to
change the amount every week because by the time month-end comes, the money is
eroded by inflation. At least, if I charge in US dollars, no matter the
inflation, I’m assured that I will get value from my property at the end of the
day. I know things are tough, but I also have to survive and realise a return on
my investment,” Mberi said.

The Central Statistical Office has failed to
issue the rate of inflation, which stood at 100,000 per cent in January but has
been put at a staggering 1.7 million per cent by independent
analysts.

The country’s local currency has become so worthless it was
trading at 1US$ to Z$1.2 billion by last Thursday, yet a day before it was
trading at 1$US to Z$701,000. The development has seen virtually everything go
up on a daily basis, much to the frustration of ordinary Zimbabweans who are now
looking forward to the presidential run-off “to one and for all get ourselves
out of this hell-on-earth.” “Only a change of government will free us from this
suffering.

We voted against the government and it never changed our lot,
but even if Zanu-PF sends out its militias to beat us up, we will make sure come
27 June, we will vote for change, any change, as enough is enough,” laments Jim
Fero, an informal trader.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwean police have been running
commercials on national television over the past week, warning landlords
against charging clients in foreign currency.

But the warnings have not
been taken seriously by the majority of Zimbabweans, who dismiss them as a
campaign strategy by Zanu-PF ahead of the presidential run-off between
Tsvangirai and Mugabe, set for 27 June. So far, no one has been convicted of
charging goods and services in forex, although a few individuals have faced
charges of flouting exchange control regulations.

Elliot Manyika tells
Villagers to eliminate all “Sellouts”

(Left,A policeman stands next to
the charred body of an MDC staffer burnt to death at the Zaka MDC offices by
ZANU PF militia.)

Elliot Manyika,ZANU PF-Bindura., reportedly told
villagers at Chinyauhwera Business Centre, south of Mutare City that ZANU PF
party supporters should be on the lookout for “sellouts” and “traitors” who
wanted to give back the country to Britain.

Addressing the gathering Manyika who is also a
Minister in Mugabe’s government said,”You should be on the lookout for
traitors,” Manyika said. “They are among us. We have enemies all around
us”.

Hours after Manyika’s rally Zanu PF supporters and a
group of men in army uniforms moved from homestead to homestead in Chigodora and
Chitakatira villages attacking MDC activists and burning their homes.

Eleven MDC activists including three councillors in
the villages were taken to hospital in Mutare after sustaining serious injuries.
Some of the affected were only identified as Mwedzi and Mutsoto.

Three teachers at Matika Primary School were also
forced to flee the school station after they were threatened by Zanu PF militia.
The teachers participated in a voter education campaign during the run-up to the
March 29 polls. They were confronted by Zanu PF activists led by a woman
identified only as Mrs Mangirazi and accused them of misleading villagers to
vote for the MDC.

Chigodora, Chitakatira and Matika villages are in
Mutare South which was won by a Zanu PF ’s, Fred Kanzama.

Manyika said villagers should be on the lookout for
MDC supporters and eliminate them because the MDC was being used by whites to
“re-colonise” Zimbabwe.

“The whites found out that Tsvangirai is a willing
tool and are using him to re-colonise the country. Now that we have our
independence, we are forgetting what we went through during the armed colonial
era and today some are saying we want Tsvangirai who wants to return the country
to the whites.”

“Tsvangirai ran away during the liberation struggle
and today the whites are using him to cause confusion in the
country.”

Police were present at the gathering and heard the
remarks.Six MDC lawmakers are behind bars after police say the incited
violence,none of them have addressed any gathering.

ZANU PF
Militia Kill Minister ’s brother

By Tongai Gava-Special Projects Editor ⋅
zimbabwemetro.com ⋅ June 8, 2008A brother to the Minister of Information was
beaten to death by ZANU PF militia,the state media has been keeping a tight
lid on the story.

Sindisiwe Ndlovu, a younger brother to Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu, was buried on Sunday in Mberengwa.

He died on Wednesday after
being assaulted by a group of twelve ZANU PF militia over disagreements over
payments for their services.

The twelve Militia usually immune from
prosecution were rounded up on Thursday and locked up at a police station in
Mberengwa.

Mr Goche, acting in his
capacity as Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, has issued a
circular letter dated 4th June 2008, which although headed " To All Private
Voluntary Organizations (PVOs)/Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)", was only
delivered to a number of organisations distributing humanitarian aid. It reads
as follows: It has come to my attention that a number of NGOs involved in
humanitarian operations are breaching the terms and conditions of their
registration as enshrined in the Private Voluntary Organizations Act [Chapter
17:05], as well as the provisions of the Code of Procedures for the Registration
and operations of Non Governmental Organizations in Zimbabwe (General Notice 99
of 2007). As the Regulatory Authority, before proceeding with the provision of
Section (10), Subsection ( c ), of the Private Voluntary Act [Chapter 17:05], I
hereby instruct all PVOs/NGOs to suspend all field operation until further
notice.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights have taken the preliminary position that the letter is not legally
valid, as the Private Voluntary Organisations Act does not empower the Minister
to suspend an NGO's operations. Also, section 10 of the Act, cited in the
letter, empowers the PVO Board, not the Minister, to take action to de-register
an NGO. But, whatever the legality of this instruction, it is a political
reality. Today's Herald went a step further in its headlines and stated [based
on a statement by the Deputy Minister of Information] that "All NGOs have been
ordered to apply for new registration permits as part of measures to clamp down
on the incidences of civil society meddling in the country's politics ahead of
the June 27 presidential run-off." This is not in fact what Minister Goche's
circular letter states, but for security reasons NGOs should seek clarification
and legal advice and take due care.

Election Update

A list of
the 9231 Polling Stations has been published in the press, and the two major
political parties given copies. There have been a few changes since the March
29 poll, but no reduction in numbers of polling stations.

Presidential Election and By-Election
Calendar

16th
May: The Election Period started [on the date that Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission [ZEC] gazetted the date of the Presidential and By- Elections
poll.

Media coverage rules as specified by the ZEC Act and
Regulations apply from this date

2nd
June: Accreditation of international and local observers and
journalists by ZEC commenced at the Harare and Bulawayo Polytechnics.
International observers who observed the last election do not need a new
invitation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [new observers do] but still
need to be accredited. Local observers need to apply for an invitation from the
Minister of Justice before seeking accreditation. The process of accreditation
will continue until polling day. [In fact, according to the Electoral Act
observers are entitled to observe from the commencement of the election period
on 16th May.]

4th
June: Checking of applications for postal votes by the Chief Election
Officer commenced. ZEC has made a statement that election agents and observers
are invited to witness this process. The checking will be done in Committee
Room No. 6 at the Harare International Conference Centre [HICC] from 8am to 7pm,
Monday to Friday, until polling day..

17th
June:Closing date for applications for postal vote. All
applications must reach the Chief Elections Officer [by hand at the HICC or by
registered post to PB 7782, Causeway] by noon on this day.

20th
June:Postal Ballot Boxes will be sealed. This will be done at ward
centres and election agents and observers are entitled to be
present.

27th
June:Polling Day for Presidential Run-off Election and
By-Elections

The
Election period [and the duties and functions of observers] continues until the
announcement of the results

Information from ZEC

National Multi-Party Liaison Committee meeting: The National
Multi-Party Liaison Committee has condemned the violence that is taking place
and at their meeting on 4th of June it was decided that a declaration condemning
political violence would be drawn up and signed by the two main parties. The
provincial, constituency and local authority Multi-Party Liaison Committees are
scheduled to commence their meetings next week.

Proposed Increase in Number of Polling Agents: ZEC has agreed
that the number of candidates' election agents permitted inside each polling
station should be increased from one to two per candidate. This will require a
gazetted SI amending the Electoral Regulations.

Training of election officials: Training of constituency
election officers is continuing up to the 22nd June.

ZEC
Committee on Media Monitoring: ZEC has stated that it continues to monitor
election coverage by the media. [Section 16G of the ZEC Act obliges ZEC to
carry out such monitoring to ensure that parties, candidates, broadcasters
print publishers and journalists observe the fair coverage provisions of the ZEC
Act and regulations. ZEC's post-election report to the President and Parliament
must include a report on election coverage by the
media.]

Election Petitions: The Judge President has heard legal argument
on preliminary points in 8 cases and has reserved judgement.

Case
to bring Presidential election date forward: to be heard on 19th
June

Case by disallowed Presidential candidates: Judgement
is still awaited.

Challenge to Official/Police Involvement in Voting arrangements for
disabled: date not yet set for hearing.

Arrests of Elected MP's and Senators

In the
last few weeks at least 10 newly elected legislators have been arrested [some
detained up to two weeks before bail]. All 10 are MDC legislators [as far as is
known, there have been no arrests of ZANU-PF MPs.] This raises concern, not
only about the circumstances of their arrests and their treatment in police
custody, but also emphasises the vulnerability of the MDC's 10-seat majority in
the House of Assembly. The arrests were on various charges, including serious
offences, such as inciting public violence, punishable by long periods of
imprisonment. If an MP is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for 6 months
or more, the MP loses his or her seat automatically.

No new Bills or Acts were gazetted this
week

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot
take legal responsibility for information supplied.

Zimbabwe is a police state: Anglican Archbishop

Zimbabwe is a police state and the levels of intimidation
show the crucial importance of deploying large numbers of election monitors,
said Archbishop Thabo Makgoba on return from the country
today.

"There is no doubt that Zimbabwe is a police state," he said in a
statement after making a pastoral visit to the Zimbabwe's Anglican bishops.
"The levels of intimidation I witnessed on a visit to Zimbabwe last week
underline the crucial importance of deploying large numbers of both
international and local election monitors...for the June 27 presidential
run-off," he said.

On a four-hour trip from Harare to Masvingo, the
bishop passed nine police roadblocks and was stopped at every one. Most
visible were uniformed police armed with rifles. Groups of men, women and
young people were in the streets chanting: "Mugabe, what should we do with
the sell-outs, tell us."

He said he witnessed along the road to Masvingo
derelict once-prosperous farms, and queues of people stretching from shops.
"Hyper-inflation, poverty and hunger is their daily reality," he said.
Makgoba apologised to the Anglican bishops of Zimbabwe for the xenophobic
attacks their compatriots in South Africa suffered, and assured them of
support and prayers. - Sapa

Zimbabwe Vigil Diary - 7th June 2008

The Mugabe regime's decision to stop
aid organisations feeding the starving has led the news bulletins.
Passers-by showed great sympathy, especially following Mugabe's cynical
rhetoric at the world food conference in Rome. Many stopped to discuss the
situation and also signed our special petition addressed to Mugabe's
protector, President Mbeki: "Following the recent attacks on Zimbabweans and
other foreign nationals in South Africa we, the undersigned, call on
President Mbeki to take action to ensure the safety of these endangered
people and bring the perpetrators to justice. We urge President Mbeki to
end his support of President Mugabe, allowing a resolution of the Zimbabwe
crisis and the return home of exiled Zimbabweans. Zimbabwean blood is at
your door."

As we only ran this petition for one day there are not the
thousands of signatures we normally collect but we want to give a copy to
Archbishop Desmond Tutu who on Monday 9th June is to visit St Martin in the
Fields church in nearby Trafalgar Square to speak at a service for peace,
including the blessing of three Zimbabwean sculptures. We are hoping for a
good turnout of Vigil supporters in our t-shirts distributing our leaflets
explaining the situation in Zimbabwe.

On Thursday 12th June we are to
present the petition proper to the South African High Commission next door
to St Martin in the Fields. The Vigil will be protesting there for two
hours from 12 noon to 2 pm with blood-red banners reading "Mbeki, Zimbabwean
blood on your hands".

We intend asking the clergy at St Martin's, famous
for its international approach, to join us in a prayer Vigil on Saturday
21st June along with Zimbabwean pastors and other ministers.

As you
will know, Western governments are lost for a response to Mugabe's moves.
The new leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third largest party in the UK,
Nick Clegg, has called on governments to stop financial remittances to
Zimbabwe. Obviously our supporters are disturbed at this (unworkable)
suggestion. The diaspora knows that the money being sent back to Zimbabwe
is helping keep Mugabe in power but do not think that starving our relatives
is an answer. The Vigil is to seek a meeting with Kate Hoey of the all-party
parliamentary group on Zimbabwe to suggest other options for securing change
in Zimbabwe.

These include the action proposed in one of our
petitions. "A Petition to European Union Governments. We record our dismay
at the failure of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to help
the desperate people of Zimbabwe at their time of trial. We urge the UK
government and the European Union in general to suspend government to
government aid to all 14 SADC countries until they abide by their joint
commitment to uphold human rights in the region. We suggest that the money
should instead be used to feed the starving in Zimbabwe". The money involved
is quite substantial. The UK alone is the world's largest foreign aid donor
after the US: among SADC countries it gave £75m to DRC, £61m to Zambia, £63m
to Malawi, £56m to Mozambique etc etc in 2006/2007.

If SADC allows
Mugabe to steal the Presidential Run-off on 27th June we will ask Ms Hoey
and others to press for this action to be taken against SADC and also
launch a campaign to persuade FIFA to move the 2010 World Cup from South
Africa. To underline the crucial role that South Africa plays in the
Zimbabwe crisis we are seeking police permission to form a human chain from
Zimbabwe House to South Africa House on election day, when we are holding
another mock ballot outside the Zimbabwe Embassy.

The evening before,
on Thursday 26th June, the Vigil will be taking part in the annual service
in support of Zimbabwean victims of torture organised by the Zimbabwe Human
Rights NGO Forum. This year there will be even more horrifying pictures on
display. See 'For Your Diary.'

Nelson Mandela is visiting London to mark
his 90th birthday which is being commemorated at a concert in Hyde Park on
the day of the Presidential Run-off. Some Vigil supporters will be going to
Hyde Park with banners reading "Speak out Mandela" and "What about
Zimbabwe?"

We are having difficulty keeping one of our posters up to
date. It reads "Zimbabwe leads the World" then lists devastating
statistics. First on the list is "Highest inflation". We have had to cross
out the March elections figure of 100,000% and change it to 2,000,000%!
Further down the list is a statistic about documented torture cases - we
have simply had to add "plus, plus, plus" at the end.

FOR YOUR DIARY:·
Archbishop Desmond Tutu in London. Monday 9th June 6.30, St Martin in the
Fields, Trafalgar Square. Archbishop Tutu will be at St Martin's to speak
at a short service for peace including the blessing of three Zimbabwean
sculptures by the room that has been named after him. St Martin's write
'please come as this is a wonderful opportunity to meet Archbishop Tutu and
all are very welcome'.· Protest against the xenophobic violence in
South Africa. Thursday 12th June 12 noon - 2 pm outside the South African
High Commission, Trafalgar Square. We will ask the High Commissioner to pass
on our special petition to President Mbeki.· Zimbabwe
Association's Women's Weekly Drop-in Centre. Fridays 10.30 am - 4 pm. Venue:
The Fire Station Community and ICT Centre, 84 Mayton Street, London N7 6QT,
Tel: 020 7607 9764. Nearest underground: Finsbury Park. For more information
contact the Zimbabwe Association 020 7549 0355 (open Tuesdays and
Thursdays).· 'The Twilight Rainbow'. Until Sunday 15th June. Theatre
Under-Fire (TUF) Productions' dance and music production "The Twilight
Rainbow" at the Warehouse Theatre, Dingwall Rd, CR0 2NF, Croydon, adjacent
East Croydon station. Check: www.warehousetheatre.co.uk, 020
8680 4060 for more information and tickets or contact TUF Director, Peter
Mutanda, on 07939 704 448. The performers are Zimbabwean refugees and asylum
seekers.· Prayer Vigil. Saturday 21st June from 3.30 - 5 30 pm
outside the Zimbabwe Embassy 429 Strand, London WC2. This will take place
within the normal Vigil which runs from 2 - 6 pm.· Next Glasgow
Vigil. Saturday 21st June 2 - 6 pm.. Venue: Argyle Street Precinct. For
more information contact: Ancilla Chifamba, 07770 291 150, Patrick Dzimba,
07990 724 137 or Jonathan Chireka, 07504 724 471.· Service of
Solidarity with Torture Survivors of Zimbabwe, Thursday 26th June 4 - 5.30
pm on UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture organised by the
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum supported by the Vigil. Venue: St Paul's
Church, Bedford Street, Covent Garden WC2E 9ED. All welcome to join the
service and post-service procession to lay flowers on the steps of the
Zimbabwe Embassy.· Zimbabwe Vigil's mock Presidential Run-off. Friday
27th June 10 am - 4 pm outside the Zimbabwe Embassy.· Mandela
90th Birthday Concert. Friday 27th June, 4 pm in Hyde Park. Vigil supporters
to attend the event with banners reading "Speak out Mandela" and "What
about Zimbabwe?"

Vigil co-ordinatorsThe Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00
to protest against gross violations of human rights by the current regime in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.

Police ban MDC posters in Bulawayo

Police and members of the Central
Intelligence Organisation in Bulawayo have attacked MDC supporters and
banned them from putting up election campaign posters for President Morgan
Tsvangirai.

At 1200hrs, a team of four MDC members led by the MDC
National Deputy Spokesperson, Ms Thabita Khumalo, were putting up posters on
electricity and street line poles near Magnet House in Bulawayo, when they
were confronted by Central Intelligence Officers who told them that "it was
Mugabe's country and only Mugabe could put posters on street poles and the
MDC would not be allowed."

The poster team then moved to the railway
station to continue with their work only to be followed by police officers
in riot gear and on bicycles. The police, after insisting that the country
belongs to Mugabe and that the MDC would not be allowed to put up posters,
started assaulting the MDC memebrs with baton sticks. One of the team
members, Jerry Chiteshe suffered a broken leg and he is at Gallen House
Hospital.

MDC Presidential spokesman, George Sibotshiwe, pointed out that
the Mugabe regime has turned Zimbabwe into a militariased police state. "The
regime is denying the people their fundamental rights in order to steal the
June 27 election and subvert the will of the Zimbabwean people through
widespread violence and killings, wanton arrests and by closing political
space for the MDC to campaign", Mr Sibotshiwe said.

"However, the
time for change has arrived and the resolve of the people of Zimbabwe to
attain that change is as strong as ever", he added.

Zimbabwe Could Prosper If Crisis Resolved - Political
Leaders

nasdaq

CAPE TOWN (AFP)--Zimbabwe has enviable resources and
infrastructure for a bright economic future after President Robert Mugabe's
departure, despite current woes, political and business leaders said
Friday.

Addressing the 18th World Economic Forum on Africa, Zimbabwe's
opposition leaders and businesses said that once the country's political
crisis is resolved the economy holds endless opportunity.

"Our
economy can be stronger than South Africa. We have the potential when we get
our legitimacy to fly...to become a global economy," Arthur Mutambara,
leader of a faction of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change,
told delegates.

Zimbabwe businessman Nigel Chanakira, chief executive of
Kingdom Meikles Africa, said business opportunities still existed in the
southern African nation despite an official inflation rate of more than
165,000 percent.

"The reality of the matter is that countries don't fall
off the face of the earth. People live in Zimbabwe, people conduct business
and still try and fashion a life out of that.

"In the midst of the
chaos there are business opportunities. Services are required, basics are
needed. People can play a role from that perspective amidst the
unpredictable macro economic indicators.

"This is not time for an African
renaissance, it is time for the African reformation," he said.

He
outlined a plan including talks with the West, a conference on land reform,
a donor conference and multilateral institutions engaging in Zimbabwe to
rebuild the economy.

"Talks with the West have to take place whether we
like it or not. We are entrenched and steeped in history...pointing fingers
at one another just doesn't cut it any more," he said.

"It takes the
brave."

Simba Makoni, a former finance minister who ran for president in
the first round of elections in March, said the tourism, agriculture and
manufacturing sectors could all be revived relatively easily.

"You
can literally switch on tourism once there is normalization...there is no
threat of fear. You can kickstart agriculture, there is still a core of
competent farmers."

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is facing a
run-off election against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in three weeks'
time.

Nothing Must Detract From Free Zim Elections - Govt

BuaNews
(Tshwane)

8 June 2008Posted to the web 8 June
2008

Pretoria

The South African government has called on all
parties involved to discontinue any action that may serve to detract from
the objective of having free and fair Presidential run-off elections in
Zimbabwe.

In a statement issued by the Presidency on Friday, government
expressed its hope that the matter raised by United States of America
Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, bilaterally with the Zimbabwean
authorities regarding the plight of USA diplomats in the country, will be
resolved as speedily as possible at a bilateral level.

"The South
African government is currently seized with the matter of the facilitation
between the relevant parties in Zimbabwe to ensure that the Presidential
run-off election takes place under optimal conditions that will enable the
will of the Zimbabwean people to be expressed," the statement
said.

The election run-off date is set for 27 June following the
initial presidential balloting being inconclusive and marred by allegations
of fraud and vote rigging.

Both current President Robert Mugabe and
Mr Tsvangirai fell short of gaining a straight majority.

Early last
week, President Thabo Mbeki urged the government and the people of Zimbabwe
to activate joint monitoring mechanisms as part of creating an environment
conducive to holding free and fair elections.

"President Mbeki appeals
for calmness and proportionate use of language, the better to manage
tensions which are generally associated with election campaigns in many
parts of the world," the Presidency said.

The statement followed the
detention of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai who was later released without being charged.

Mr
Tsvangirai was detained so that his vehicle particulars could be
probed.

Upon being informed by the MDC of the arrest of its leader,
President Mbeki in his capacity as the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) facilitator immediately contacted the government of
Zimbabwe to ascertain the circumstances of the arrest.

A preliminary
group of South African observers have been deployed in Zimbabwe ahead of the
run-off elections.

The numbers of observers to Zimbabwe have increased
substantially and South African Development Community (SADC) observers would
also be in place by the time the elections are held.

SADC observers
will not only be observing the voting but intervening where there are acts
of violence in an attempt to disrupt a free and fair election
process.

Following allegations of violence in Zimbabwe in the run up
to the elections, President Thabo Mbeki had dispatched senior South African
retired generals to assess the situation in the country and to report back
to him.

'Amazing'
Grace heads a new movement

As if the world of Zimbabwean politics wasn't
sufficiently complex, into the fray during this last week has stepped a new
force which boasts the intimidating title of the "Revolutionary
Council."

It is composed of former freedom fighters and Mugabe
hard-liners, its aim is to shelve the current electoral process and
reconsistute the old Zanu-PF-dominated parliament, and its patron is none
other than the nation's First Shopper, Mrs. "Amazing" Grace
Mugabe.

The Council, which is headed by veteran hard-case Chris
Pasipamire, says its main objective is to defend the so-called land reforms,
under which the white farmers of Zimbabwe were kicked off their land, to be
replaced by blacks, most of them top officials in Zanu-PF.

It is this
policy, of course, which has led directly to our country's progress from
breadbasket of Southern Africa to basket-case, a factor which only seems to
urge on Mugabe and his economic experts.

Pasipamire loudly proclaims
Grace Mugabe as his patron, although Grace herself, who is 40 years younger
than her husband, has so far not acknowledged the title. She has been in
Rome recently, supporting her husband at the UN Food and Agriculture summit,
and avoiding reporters by sending her minions out to the shops to spend our
money, instead of going herself.

But only a few days ago she told a
gathering of Zanu-PF people that her husband would never - repeat never -
hand over power to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, even if the MDC won
the run-off election due on June 27 - a statement that might easily fall
from the lips of the patron of the new Revolutionary Council.

Might I
at this point add a few words of comment following the hypocritical and
hysterical outburst that the western world greeted the incident involving US
and British diplomats last week?

It seems that the diplomats were stopped
at a road block, harrassed, had their mobiles snatched, were threatened with
fiery death, and were held for several hours before being
released.

Believe me, ladies and gentlemen of the outraged European and
American press, if you were African, and an MDC supporter, that would have
counted as a good day.

Reflecting on Zimbabwe from Melbourne's uneasy
comfort

The Age, Australia

Jo ChandlerJune 9, 2008AS I settle down to read the latest
email from "Anne-Marie" the smell of banana bread, not long out of the oven,
warms the house. The heater is off, the scene set by middle-class mortgaged
necessity as fuel costs and interest rates and greenhouse guilt nibble
wearisomely at household comforts. Last week's fruit becomes this week's
playlunch, jumpers stay on indoors, the car stays in the driveway.

A
click of the mouse takes me into Anne-Marie's distant household. She's
Zimbabwean, a health worker, living in a district that was rich farming
country a decade ago, before the land invasions. This was the bread basket
of southern Africa. Now she bakes her own bread at night, she says - that's
if the power is on. In the shops "there is nothing on the
shelves".

Her district was once a political stronghold for President
Robert Mugabe, but the slide into endemic poverty turned the vote against
him in the March 29 poll, and for their ungrateful betrayal, the people pay
a heavy price. A campaign of retribution and intimidation in the form of
brutal assaults is conducted under what Anne-Marie dubs "Operation Where Did
You Put Your Vote?".

The political instability means she has been
unable to get to the rural hospital from which she works for weeks now,
jeopardising the precarious health of an untold number of people not just in
this generation, but the next. She stays in touch by phone. Her colleagues
tell her things are calm, though tense, through the day, but at night the
beatings are savage, the bloodied evidence coming to them each
dawn.

Her letters are echoed in The Guardian newspaper, which observed
that before the re-vote for the presidency on June 27, "Mugabe's strategy
now seems to be to cripple the opposition by arresting its leaders and
militarising his former strongholds in the rural areas, where (Opposition
leader) Morgan Tsvangirai made major gains in March".

Food is the
focus of Anne-Marie's days now. Sometimes the power is gone for eight hours
a day, for days in a row, with no notice of when it will fail. It means she
can store no perishable foods in her house.

Every three months or so, she
and her cousin take his truck on a round trip of almost 1000 kilometres to
stock up on non-perishable foods from across the border in South Africa. The
Zimbabwean dollar fell to a new low late last week, being quoted by traders
at 1 billion against the US greenback. Food of any kind is scarce in the
Zimbabwe markets, and where it appears, the clamour from desperate buyers
pushes prices higher still. She says a kilogram of chicken - if you find it
- costs more than 5 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

"The honest truth is
that there is a genocide happening in the rural areas," she writes. This,
she says, is why last Thursday Mugabe's Government announced a ban on
non-government organisations providing food aid in the countryside, accusing
them of "political activity".

Anne-Marie is blunt: "The Government is
afraid that if humanitarian organisations get first-hand information and
alerts the international community, it will be in trouble." British and
American diplomats who attempted to travel into the countryside last week
were bailed up by a mob loyal to Mugabe, slashing their tyres, assaulting a
driver, and threatening to burn them in their cars. This is the visible,
reported front.

Anne-Marie gives a glimpse of the unseen. The persecution
is hitting church groups doing what they can, despite Mugabe's espoused
Catholicism. People are anxious, stressed, and "dead scared", she says. "The
countryside has now become a no-go area for people in the towns because the
urban people are being accused of giving political orientation to rural
folk."

I'd asked whether food was being used as a weapon, as is being
increasingly reported, and she'd responded wearily: "Food has always been
used as a tool in elections by the Government, with Opposition members being
refused (permission) to buy grain from the grain marketing outlets. Grain is
only sold to ruling party card holding members."

The politics of food
became even more obscene with President Mugabe's appearance at the United
Nations emergency food summit in Rome last week. He was snubbed at the
official banquet (itself something of an obscenity, given the context). But
according to London's Telegraph newspaper, he did not do without, having
imported his own chefs and waiters to cater to him at his luxury hotel,
along with "crates" of African food.

I reread the letters, and the
reports in the international papers. I wonder at how we can be so intimately
connected in the shrinking virtual world village, to so easily reach each
other's realities. At how we are increasingly entwined by global markets,
each riding the currents of commodities trades and crop failures and fuel
prices and changing weather, though I'm paddling in the shallows and
Anne-Marie's somewhere out at sea in dark, wild, terrifying
waters.

And yet at the political level, at a humanitarian level, the
connections seem increasingly fragile, fraught, and inadequate. The distance
between people seems to grow even as the world gets smaller. As the
political elite negotiated their way diplomatically, uncomfortably around
President Mugabe in Rome, as if politely ignoring some vile smell in the
room, Anne-Marie's concerns were with a rawer political reality. A relative,
active with the Opposition, has vanished. He's not answering his mobile. She
worries and she prays. "I must thank God who has sustained my family through
these very difficult times."

Two
spies released after serving three years

HARARE -
Two Zimbabwean spies, jailed three years ago for being part of a high
profile spy ring involving a South African national, were released Saturday
after serving three year jail terms.

But their lawyer, Selby Hwacha of
Dube, Manikai and Hwacha legal practitioners, vows he will still pursue a
pending High Court appeal against both their sentences and
convictions.

The two, banker Tendai Matambanadzo and Itai March, a former
director in the ruling Zanu-PF party, were arrested together with former
Ambassador-designate to Mozambique Godfrey Dzvairo in December 2004 after
they were found to have been in breach of Zimbabwe’s controversial Official
Secrets Act.

Dzvairo was sentenced to a six year jail term while his
two accomplices were each slapped with five year jail sentences after they
all pleaded guilty to the charges at their first court appearance on
December 24, 2004.

Hwacha confirmed two of his clients had since been
released. He argues that the three’s convictions were secured after police
extracted pleas from the accused men under duress.

“Their appeals are
still pending,” he said, “The case should be taken to its logical
conclusion. It is still important to determine whether they were indeed
guilty.”

He says their convictions and the sentences were “unjustifiable”
in light of new evidence already filed with their court records and he
intended to help absolve them of the charges.

The three were charged
following a scandal in which six members of the ruling party were accused of
being part of an espionage ring which provided neighbouring South Africa
with information on the party’s affairs.

The matter came to light, it was
alleged, when Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives
arrested a South African spy in the resort town of Victoria Falls in
December 2004. It is alleged that under questioning, he gave the names of
alleged collaborators within Zanu-PF.

The other person allegedly
connected to the affair, Zimbabwean diplomat Erasmus Moyo, allegedly escaped
while being moved from Geneva to Harare.

Flamboyant Harare businessman
and former Zanu-PF legislator, Philip Chiyangwa, was also caught in the net
for allegedly receiving Z$10 000 dollars a month to pass on intelligence to
South Africa. Chiyangwa was later freed by the High Court, which ruled that
there was insufficient evidence against him.

Harare magistrate Peter
Kumbawa, however, went on to convict Dzvairo and his two accomplices on
their own plea of guilty after a grueling 15-day trial, ending on February
8, 2005.

Successive attempts to bring their appeals to the High Court
have failed to yield any fruit as the court has reportedly been unable to
locate valuable documents key to any ruling.

The last the matter was
taken to court was in December last year when the presiding judge, Justice
Anne-Mary Gowora postponed the matter citing bereavement in her family.